Description

Hope and Destiny is a work of historical non-fiction that fully elaborates on how the United States became involved as the lead nation in foreign policy dealing with the Middle East. It is a work that focuses on how two US Presidents, Harry S. Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower, established Middle East foreign policies that would pave the way for all US Presidents who followed after them. The Middle East, regarded as the most challenging region for every US President since 1945, is as ambiguous and filled with ongoing events that are as unpredictable today as they have been over the past eight decades. The reason that Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright has an equal footing with both President Truman and President Eisenhower is the fact the he worked tirelessly for a policy that would focus strictly on Middle East issues, such as borders and Israeli-Palestinian issues. Better known for his stance against the Vietnam War, this book brings to light the enormous efforts that Senator Fulbright made for a more peaceful Middle East. Many of his ideas mirror those of President Lyndon Johnson, who established the "Five Major Principles" for a Middle East peace after the 1967 War and lead to Resolution 242 that stands as the standard for peace in the region in the twenty-first century. In addition to writing the Fulbright Resolution for the establishment of the United Nations and the Fulbright Act that established the flagship scholar program around the world, he also challenged US presidential power. The focus of this book is on the Truman Doctrine of 1947, the Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957 and the Fulbright Resolution of 1957. There are many actors presented in this book, US and foreign, that had a very significant place in shaping US foreign policy. Primary source research for Hope and Destiny includes those found in the Truman and Eisenhower Presidential Libraries and the Papers of Senator Fulbright at the University of Arkansas. Numerous Arabic and some Hebrew sources are spread throughout this work, as well as official sources from archives in the State of Israel. Numerous books were read as well as newspapers, journals and magazines.